Ok, before I begin I want to let everyone know that this is review for the tournament we played on June 12, 2005. It was a rookie tournament for many different reasons. So here it goes:

First I will comment on the field. The field is not bad at all. The guy we talked to that was running it said there was about 15 total acres of paintball \which included a lot of woods ball, a very small hyperball field and a ghost town which we couldn't see because it was so far in the distance. Overall, on a recreational day, the field would be fun to play. The guy that was running the place was very nice and really loved the sport of paintball. He was talkative and told us of how they were looking to add on and make it a great place to play. We appreciated the good conversation with him and felt he was a good guy. This concludes my review of the field. Now the day we were there....

First off, the tournament was scheduled to start at 10 am SHARP. They actually had the word sharp on the flyer they sent out. We were driving from Cedar Rapids, so when I called to sign our team up the lady on the phone said to be there around 9:15 or 9:30 so we could get set up and have a captains meeting right at 10. We arrived at 9:20. We unloaded our equipment, paid for the entry fee and the paint, walked the field and were ready to play by about 9:45. Then we WAITED........AND WAITED........AND WAITED.....UNTIL 11:00AM FOR THE CAPTAINS MEETING TO START---ONE FULL HOUR LATE - Why you may ask, because nothing for the tournament was set up. The round robin brackets were not set-up, the scoreboard was not set-up, the refs were not ready , shall I go on? Needless to say, the captains meeting started at 11:00am and finally we were ready to play.....kind of. Now I will comment on the captains meeting-

KEEP IN MIND THIS IS A TOURNAMENT WHICH INCLUDED PRIZES - The woman who spoke during the captains meeting was very very rude. She actually said that if anyone was worried about how much paint they were going to use that they should not even play. NOW REMEMBER THEIR WEBSITE STATED THIS WAS A ROOKIE "BACKYARD" TOURNAMENT. I don't know that many people who play backyard paintball that dont' worry about how much paint they are using---especially when it's $100 entry fee plus 60 per case. I go on. The rules of the "tournament" were the most messed up, ridiculous rules I have ever heard of. I will give you an example:

Rule: Gun and hopper hits don't count. WHAT KIND OG A RULE IS THAT??? SO IF MY GUN IS ACCURATE AND MY OPPONENT IS LAZY AND LEAVES HIS GUN OUT IN THE OPEN AND I RIP IT WITH PAINT--HE IS NOT OUT!!!!???.

HERE'S THE BEST PART:

Rule: If you dropped a pod and it was hit with a paintball, then you were going to be called out.

HERE'S WHAT SO GREAT ABOUT THOSE TWO RULES - I HAVE NEVER HEARD THEM BEFORE EVER...EVER....EVER. NO MATTER HOW ROOKIE THE TOURNAMENT IS - THERE ARE STANDARD RULES TO PAINTBALL THAT SHOULD BE FOLLOWED NO MATTER WHERE YOU PLAY.

What really funny is that they said they would be really strict and that was enough refs to have a ref for every player on the field - which they did - but they did nothing. As an example, one of the rules of standard paintball is that you can't blind fire - however in one instance, a person was warned 3 times in one game about blind firing and never was pulled out of the game - if you're gonna run a rookie tournament, at least teach the rookies how to play.
OK - Enough about the captains meeting - I think you all get the picture.

Now on the to the actual "tournament"

We finally started to get into playing - DID I MENTION THEY WERE THREE MINUTE GAMES??????? THAT'S RIGHT THREE MINUTE GAMES-- HAS ANYONE EVER HEARD OF A TOURNAMENT WITH THREE MINUTES GAMES????

No there were 10 teams total and it was "set-up" that you played each team twice with a total of playing 18 - three minutes games all day long---so we are looking at a total of 54 minutes of gametime for the ENTIRE DAY. For 100 BUCKS PLUS PAINT - ABSOLUTELY RIDICULOUS! Once we started to get into the games we noticed something about the refs - they were not even watching the games - one time i had to have a ref paint check me and she said "i didn't see it I'll pay more attention." What is that all about- their whole job all day long is to watch the players - and she wasn't watching? enough said about the reffing - absolutely horrible - most of the refs did not even have a clue how to ref - only a few of them even set foot on the field - most of the time they stood out of bounds and watched from there.

Nobody enforced any rules - blind firing was unbelievable - blind firing is very dangerous since they don't know where they are shooting, it could be going at onlookers for all they care - DID I MENTION THERE WAS NO NETTING AROUND ANY THING - THAT'S RIGHT NO NETTING, NO PROTECTION WHATSOEVER FROM FLYING PAINTBALLS. UNBELIEVABLE. Now back to blind firing - Let me ask you something, if gun and hopper hits don't count, and they aren't enforcing blind firing, would it be fair to say i could prop my gun on a bunker and pull the trigger all day long and never get shot? This is what was happening - In a 3 minutes game there were so many stale mates because people would hide and blind fire and would never be able to be shot unless it was point blank - WHICH IS VERY DANGEROUS FOR A ROOKIE TOURNAMENT WHEN PEOPLE DON'T KNOW HOW TO PROPERLY BUNKER SOMEONE. NEEDLESS TO SAY 2 PEOPLE WERE IN THE FACE THROUGH THEIR MASK - DOES THIS SOUND LIKE A SAFE PLACE TO PLAY- I THINK NOT.

I'm going to fast forward to the end of a couple rounds and talk about scoring. They could even get the score right - we had to go back re add our own scores to make sure we got the point we earned - it was absolutely pathetic. NO ONE KNEW WHAT THEY TRULY HAD BECAUSE NO ONE KEPT ACCURATE SCORING. AGAIN PATHETIC.

So we fast forward past the 4 round of playing --- IT STARTED AT 11:00AM AND IT WAS 3:00PM - 4 HOURS FOR 4 ROUNDS OF 3 MINUTE GAMES -HOW IS THAT POSSIBLE YOU ASK? --LACK ORGANIZATION OR FOR THAT MATTER KNOWLEDGE OF HOW PAINTBALL IS TRULY PLAYED. BY THE 4TH ROUND OUR TEAM HAD PLAYED A TOTAL OF 24 MINUTES OF PAINTBALL IN A 4 HOUR SPAN. THAT IS UNBELIEVABLE. AND THE HILARIOUS PART IS THAT WE HAD 5 MORE ROUNDS TO GO- WE DIDN'T EVEN MAKE IT TO THE HALF WY POINT IN 4 HOURS - WE PROBABLY WOULD HAVE BEEN THERE TILL 9 PM IF WE HAD FINISHED. SIMPLY BECAUSE NO ONE KNEW WHAT WAS GOING ON. SO WE PACKED UP AND LEFT

WHICH BRINGS ME TO MY NEXT POINT - THE STAFF OR HELPERS OR ANYONE WHO HAD ANYTHING TO DO WITH TELLING US WHAT TO DO:

The staff of woman working the concession stand, or just walking around the staging area would constantly yell at everyone to hurry up and walked back to the field to get ready to play again because they were so far behind-- I do not appreciate being treated like a 10 year old. I am 25 years old, know how a paintball tournament works and did not need a some grey hair lady with a cigarette in her hand giving me the 3rd degree as to why i was not standing readily by the starting point-- we had just got done playing for one, and for two we were packing up our stuff and leaving - that was just plain uncalled for. SHE WAS VERY DISRESPECTFUL. And a side note, the lady in the concession stand that kept telling everyone she had hotdog s that were warm was very very annoying as well. SO WE LEFT -- HERE IS MY CONCLUSION:

I WILL NEVER RETURN TO THIS FIELD ON A TOURNAMENT DAY OR A REC DAY, AND I WILL MAKE SURE THAT EVERYONE I COME IN CONTACT WITH KNOW THE POOR EXPERIENCE I HAD. FROM READING THE REST OF THE REVIEWS ON THIS FIELD, I GUESS I SHOULD BE KICKING MYSELF IN THE BUTT FOR EVEN ATTEMPTING TO GO -- BECAUSE IT SEEMS OTHER PEOPLE HAVE HAD BAD EXPERIENCES TOO.

The tournament was the saddest most poorly run event I have every seen- It was not even worthy of backyard paintball simply DUE TO THE LACK OF ORGANIZATION, HORRIBLE REFFING, RULES THAT AREN'T TRULY A PART OF THE SPORT OF PAINTBALL, AND THE STAFF. IT WAS THE MOST HORRIFIC THING I HAVE EVER WITNESSED - AND AGAIN I SAY THAT I WILL MAKE SURE MY VOICE IS HEARD.

WHEN THIS FIELD DECIDED TO OPEN IT'S EYES TO 21ST CENTURY PAINTBALL I THINK I MAY SEE PIGS FLY.

Inc conclusion, if you have a field that is local to you or one within a 50 mile radius - CHERISH IT, LOVE IT AND APPRECIATE IT, BECAUSE THE REGULARS AT THIS FIELD TRULY DON' KNOW HOW REAL PAINTBALL IS PLAYED.

My final comment will be this - The guy that was chronoing the players coming off the field was a great guy and we enjoyed chatting with you about your indoor field idea - but before you guys decide to invest all that money, make sure you have some people who can make it a little more enjoyable - The ladies that were refs, at the staging areas, at the front counter when we paid and in the concession stand should be banned for life - they were the most rude women i had ever met.

By the way, we were team firestorm - if the owners would like to call for some suggestions, my contact info is on the sheet - give me a call and i'll fill you in on paintball rules.

If I have forgotten any of my terrible experiences at this field i will be sure to edit and add it to this review.

I was also at the tournament. I have a question. If you are so great at paint ball, and well you know all the rules to paint ball, and I see you have been playing paint ball for three years then oh and you have all this experience with other tournaments then WHY ARE YOU IN A ROOKIE BACK YARD TOURNAMENT???????

The tournament was a lot of fun. I agree about some of your complaints. The owners, Jack and Jenny, can be a little abrasive. However the are really good people when you get to know them. I wish more people in the sport could be like them. The refs did a fine job.

I will not waste much more of my time with your review. I would like to add that I could see your team was not having fun. I personally went up to your team and asked your team blew me off and said every thing is fine. At the time my team was set to play yours. I was disappointed that we did not get to play you. Now that I have read your childish comments. I would like you to know that i am glad that I did waste my paint on you.

One more thing the only thing that kept you team form having fun that day was yourself.

The field sux and the staff sux, last time i was there you could bunker people, COME ON. If i run up on someone I am gonna shoot the piss out of them. Its BS to go oh i'm too close and the ball might hurt. Get over it. Jack is a little #@^&, so stop defending him. And he needs to realize him MAG is a piece.